The Museum Building
A bakery for over 370 years, the building was adapted as a museum in 1987 and re-developed in 1998 with a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund. It is actually two Wealden timber framed houses. One was built about 1400 and the other around 1446, with a brick facade and parapet added in the 18th Century. The original lime and horse hair plaster covering a wattle wall can still be seen.
The Museum records the history of a quiet country town with many traces of a rich industrial past, notably in cloth making and knitting. It was the first town in the world to have a public electricity supply. It hosts a series of exhibitions and events throughout the year.
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The garden at the back of the Museum was conceived as a cottage garden in the style of Gertrude Jekyll following her principles of planting, colour grouping and design - and her influential partnership with Lutyens is celebrated in the Summer House and seat, replicas of his designs.
Click here for more information about Jekyll and Lutyens and visit the museum library to see a selection of their drawings. On a fine day, the garden is a very agreeable place to enjoy a cafetiere of freshly-brewed coffee!
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Enter by the garden door to see the temporary exhibition area and the Gift Shop.
Great care has been taken to ensure the interior development has been sympathetic to the original features of the building
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The touch-screen Gertrude Jekyll's Scrapbook is an enjoyable way to explore the famous gardener's life, work and design techniques
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The local history galleries are on the first floor. Ceiling hung banners guide you around the displays which cover local interest topics ranging from archaeology to war time, work and play to the Silver Jubilee. |
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Also on the first floor, the Wall of Faces - featuring people who made Godalming into what it is today, and local celebrities...
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... and the Museum has a collection of fine early clocks, several by the Stedman family, including the old town clock (1814) are in working order.
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Library
Open 1-4 pm Tues - Sat
Information about the Museum's Collections is available in the Library, which is also a valuable source of local records including Jekyll's collection of garden drawings, and her notebooks containing lists of plants for gardens.
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At Work and at War
A stocking frame illustrates the town's dependence in the past on cloth making and knitting. Other local industries are featured as are the two World Wars.
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